Trip to the Bay Area

I came to the Bay Area to attend a content strategy seminar sponsored by eBay in the old Novell building in San Jose. I got an afternoon free the day I arrived, so I drove down the coast from Half Moon Bay to Carmel. I also had work when I got back to the hotel in the evening, so all's fair.

I think this is the first time I've rented from Avis. My first choice, Hertz, is not on the company's approved list. The Avis lady offered this Mini Cooper at no additional cost. With the afternoon free, I was thinking of driving to the beach, and this looked like fun, so why not? The Pigeon Point Lighthouse is in the background, on Highway 1 between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz. This is the tallest lighthouse on the West Coast. It was for sale when we lived in California, but the California State Parks has thankfully taken it over, and the grounds are open to the public. The lighthouse is not open until it is restored in the distant future. 

The real Pebble Beach. I think this is part of Bean Hollow State Beach. But it's called Pebble Beach.  

A closer view of the beautifully colored pebbles. 

If you've ever bought fresh strawberries in the Western U.S., chances are they came from Watsonville, California. 

And chances are these people picked them. 

Low tide. Surf plants take a beating. 

Okay, I'm going to break one of my rules on photography, and that is to post only one picture of a particular scene. But I was fascinated watching this seaweed getting clobbered in the low-tide surf. 

Last picture of this. 

Here I go again: Three pictures of San Francisco at night taken from the Marin Headlands. My favorite spot for viewing the city. The Bay Bridge is on the left of San Francisco, going to Treasure Island and Oakland. A section of this double-decker bridge collapsed in the 1989 earthquake, killing one woman.  

This is a composite picture that shows what I saw, with the full moon over the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco.  

This untouched picture shows what the camera saw. I'm not sure which picture I like better, so here they both are. 

Walking Around Silver Lake on Conference Saturday

We met the Weavers at Silver Lake by Brighton on Saturday, ate a lunch of Kneaders sandwiches and walked around the lake.

While we finished lunch, Tanner made a snow bear. And Annie ate styrofoam. Okay, actually it was some airy, flavorless puffed wheat thing Chieko bought.

Annie warming her face with Jared's USU mittens, which I assume he wore to the USU-BYU game last night. 

Annie getting off her tree stump. 

Looking at the lake. 

Looking at us. 

Looking at whatever is in the lake--ducks are swimming nearby. 

Big Cottonwood Canyon got quite a bit of snow yesterday.

Grandparents and grandkids. 

Weavers. 

Walking back to the cars. 

The federal government is currently shut down because Congress can't agree on anything, let alone a budget. Even restrooms in the national forest are locked up. 

Tetons and Yellowstone

Chieko and I try to go to Teton National Park and the Bar J Wranglers chuck wagon at least once a year, usually in September, kind of an anniversary and end-of-summer celebration. It's a great time to go, because there are few people, and many of the larger animals are actively getting ready for winter.

This year Janet, Jennifer, Stanton, my dad, Nancy and Cecil joined us. The following pictures are more or less in chronological order.

We arrived Friday, checked into the Alpenhoff Lodge in Teton Village, and the other group checked into a condo nearby. We then headed over to the Bar J to wait in line. 

Babe is the dad who started the Bar J Wranglers 36 years ago. He retired several years ago but showed up  this night and did his intro. 

These are the wranglers, except Donnie, who sits to the left. 

Brian is the smart aleck base player brother. 

I think Brian is the older brother. 

Tim joined the group 25 years ago and is a national champion fiddler. 

Danny joined a few years ago. He replaced a deep base nicknamed Bullfrog, who replaced Babe when he retired. I think Bullfrog left for health reasons. 

Donnie plays the steel guitar and anything else with pickable strings. 

On Saturday morning we headed up the Teton-Moose road that winds past the old JY Ranch and in to Moose. This guy was fattening up for winter along the side of the road. 

He headed our way, and we scooted back into our cars. He then walked up the road and right past us. 

I couldn't decide whether to roll the window up so we wouldn't be eaten or roll it down and take pictures. 

We stopped at Old Faithful, shopped for souvenirs, watched the geyser and ate lunch. Then we visited Midway Basin. 

The springs were pretty steamy, and a wind blew the steam mostly in our direction. 

Then over to The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. This is Artist Point. 

On the way back we saw a large herd of bison. 

I think this is the granddaddy. 

We ate dinner on a picnic table on the Yellowstone Lake beach at Fishing Bridge. Except for some deer drinking from the lake, we were the only visitors here. 

On Sunday morning we drove up the Jenny Lake road. This is one of my favorite picture spots. Sometimes horses are in this pasture. 

The weekend group. 

Chieko and me. 

We saw this elk looking for his mate, who was trotting along behind a hill with a calf. 

He's pretty serious. 

At Jenny Lake we saw, heard and spoke no evil. 

Dad reminiscing, maybe. 

We skipped and threw a lot of rocks in the lake. 

We stopped at Signal Mountain to see the valley from the top of the world on our way to Jackson Lake Lodge. This is the view from the lodge. Jackson Lake was dry north of the dam. 

On the way home we received the 40-percent chance of rain that was predicted, and this rainbow presented itself as we left Woodruff, Utah. 

When It Storms, Head for the Uintas

When a bolt of lightning exploded right near our house, I decided it was time to run up to the Uintas. Chieko thought I was nuts, but storms often produce some of the most interesting scenery. I also wanted to check on the beavers. When we were up there over Labor Day weekend we saw several beaver-chewed young aspens, giving me hope that beavers have returned to the ponds where I had watched them for several years, until they disappeared two summers ago.

This is the valley with the beaver ponds as seen from my East Office (if you go back a few years, I posted a picture of me sitting in this spot doing freelance work with a notebook computer on my lap). One of my favorite spots. In addition to beavers, I've seen moose, elk, sandhill cranes and a host of other small wildlife here. This is looking southeast across the meadow. 

And voila, a beaver was swimming from the lodge to the meadow below just as I arrived today. 

Here he is coming back about 45 minutes later. This is good. He didn't bring back building materials or food, so I don't know what he was doing for 3/4 of an hour. 

If you drive up to Whitney, you'll find this warming hut stocked with a bunch of firewood and a sign that says the hut will stay open as long as people take care of it. Makes me consider snow shoeing or cross country skiing in to here during the winter. 

Inside the living room of the warming hut. You can see the bedroom through the door in the back. That room has four sets of bunk beds, a desk and a table. 

The porch is a bit rickety, but all in all, the hut is well maintained. 

Many of the aspens have turned to yellow, but many are still summer green. 

You can see this mountain from the road to Whitney Reservoir. 

And these clouds were also on the Whitney road. 

The aspens are changing. 

I am fascinated by aspens. 

Some aspen leaves turn yellow, some turn red. 

Bald Mountain. 

This is the beaver meadow south of the ponds and looking north.